


the tale of the black dragon king

by shirogiku



Category: Original Work
Genre: Dragons, Enemies to Lovers, Experimental Style, Fantasy, Foe Yay, Forced Shapeshifting, M/M, Magic, Pseudo Folktale, Revenge, Shapeshifting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-26
Updated: 2013-10-26
Packaged: 2017-12-30 13:35:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1019244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shirogiku/pseuds/shirogiku
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>I will teach you the value of a human life,</i> said a wandering wordsmith to a wicked dragon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the tale of the black dragon king

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shaitanah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shaitanah/gifts).



***

****

in the beginning, when the world was young and restless and pliable, words flocked to those who would use them to shape things.

 

but the dragon had no use for words: he had his fire, claws and teeth.

****

he was a magnificent creature, his scales coal-black, a wicked gleam in his yellow eyes. he was selfish, violent, and he so happened to despise humans - for no particular reason other than he found their mere existence irksome and offensive to his person.

****

whenever disaster struck, he laughed at their misery. he enjoyed toying with them, devising new ways of torment. he was known to tear children from their mothers’ arms and leave them high in the mountains to starve. from those who hoped to placate him, he demanded more and more tributes each time and then rejected them at whim, burning entire settlements to cinders.

 

what gods would dream up such useless wretches? he wondered as he bit through their brittle bones and feasted on their fickle hearts.

 

a wandering wordsmith heard of this dragon and swore to put a stop to his cruelties.

 

the wordsmith built a great fire and breathed in the smoke, and the words of fire and smoke with it. then he spoke the words and turned into a dragon.

****

he made a smaller, less impressive beast but the match was even. they fought three nights and three days and neither could prevail.

 

during a brief standstill, both sides licking their wounds, the wordsmith reverted to his truer form and spoke thus to the dragon: I will teach you the value of a human life.

 

the dragon scoffed, raising his forepaw to squash him like a bug. the wordsmith spoke the words and the words obeyed him like loyal, eager pets. the words whipped over the dragon like a gust of wind, peeling away his scales and stealing his wings.

 

before the wordsmith, a naked, defenseless human howled and rolled on the ground, his face twisted in primordial rage. the wordsmith bade him to speak but no words came out of the dragon’s mouth.

 

the wordsmith named him his servant and put a collar around his neck lest he escape and wreak more havoc.

****

the dragon raised his head proudly, his spirit unbroken and his gaze burning with hatred. he had a sinewy body and he was neither young nor old and neither handsome nor repulsive - he was a little bit of all of it.

 

they traveled from small villages to big cities, from mountains to valleys and from seas to deserts, and still the servant would not speak. he watched the wordsmith help those who asked for it with one hand and punish those who didn’t with another. he watched the wordsmith eat exotic fruits and lie with men and women alike. the wordsmith never got tired or ill.

 

the wordsmith devoured books with more ardour than food or lovers - words were his only true companions. he wrote poetry on the sand. it was terrible.

 

the servant yearned for the skies but even more for bloody vengeance. the hardships of the road left him unmoved and unsympathetic.

 

the wordsmith was proud and lonely; while everything amused him, nothing touched his heart.

 

sometimes they would gaze into each other; their abysses were mirror twins.

****

there were lessons, learned by no one.

 

months rolled by, turning into years. the servant would not deign to use a single word.

 

of all the creatures whose lives the wordsmith had touched, none had spent as much time with him as the one whom he had punished the most.

 

one night the servant whispered: wordsmith, and slid under the covers. there were no words for the ways their bodies crashed together and the ways they came apart and the ways to break each other they discovered.

 

at last, the wordsmith’s eyes betrayed indecision but he would not remove the collar. he had come to enjoy the dragon’s humiliation, perhaps too much.

 

they had many adventures together and many more nights of denied passion.

 

until the servant saved the wordsmith’s life and asked no reward for it. indeed, he remained as stubbornly silent as ever.

 

they resumed their travels. his life had cost the wordsmith his last measure of peace. he had always been lonely but now he felt it. nothing would ever make him trust the dragon - he was no fool.

 

the wordsmith removed the collar and unnamed the dragon, apologising for having abused the words.

 

the wordsmith had no other tricks or weapons. the dragon remained human only long enough to tell the wordsmith: you are dead.

 

then he soared up into the sky. he swooped down upon the land and tore the wordsmith’s body apart, scattering it around for everyone to see his triumph.

 

but the joy from winning back his freedom quickly waned, giving way to strange discontent.

 

nothing was as it used to be.

 

as he lay alone in his cave or fought other dragons, he remembered the last look in the wordsmith’s eyes, his betrayed, weary resignation.

 

and the dragon wept for the first and for the last time because he had learnt the value of a human life. the wordsmith had won.

 

the dragon lived for a long, long time. some say he still sleeps in the mountains and waits for the wordsmith to be reborn so that he could tell him he’d missed him.

 

those who say so are sentimental fools.


End file.
